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Sunday, January 20, 2013

First Week Of Being A Student Again After 8 Years & Two South African Connections....

WOW!! What a week!So as many of you know I started my first week of studying at Washtenaw Community College this week. It has been quite an adjustment going back to school after 8 years, especially it being evening classes, so it has made for really long days for me (3 in a row), I'm hoping I can get through this first semester with good grades, and actually survive the sleep loss, LOL....

Some will probably say my schedule isn't that bad, but for someone going back into studying after so long I think it is semi-brutal, with it having to be evening classes!! Okay maybe I'm over exaggerating a bit, but still, LOLI thought I would just run through my first week of my new adventure being a student again in a USA College, for friends and family back home (or anywhere) that are interested in hearing about it :)So on Monday I went for a mandatory Orientation at the Writing Center at WCC, it is Mandatory for all who sign up for specific English Classes. It was an hour long and they basically told us what to use the Writing Center for, and to give us a list of Assignments that we have to do on our own, which then count towards 25% of our English Grade at the end of the Semester. There are 12 Assignments to do, and starting January 31st they are due every Thursday! Wow!! LOL.... So I started on them so I could be finished with them early and have them behind me, so I can just concentrate on class work.... We had to write a paragraph of what we remembered the lady telling us about the Writing Center, and then take it to one of the Tutors that are always there during the week, to read it and sign it off and file it away. I randomly picked one lady and she ended up being born in South Africa!! How weird is THAT!! Her Mother lives in West Bloomfield (even weirder, coz that's where I Au Paired in 2006 - 2008), lol.... She was super sweet and offered help in all aspects of my life, which I thought was amazing :)Tuesday evening I had ACS (Academic Skills Seminar), this helps us with how to study etc etc. Have a nice lecturer, she is the International Student Counselor, which is pretty nice if I may say so myself!I also have a Math class on Tuesday evening, so I end classes at 10pm :( boo! LOL.... Anyways, I was pretty nervous about this class, having not done Math for YEARS!! I just didn't know what to expect! He is retired already and now only lectures a few classes.... Anyways it turned out that my lecturer had lived in Swaziland for 2 years with his wife and kids! His son went to a small school with the other missionary kids that were around there with their families and two of his daughters ended up having gone to school in PIETERMARITZBURG - where I come from, now seriously, how weird is that?? LOL.... I must say I was pretty shocked! I couldn't understand how I of all people ended up with a lecturer that had been to SOUTH AFRICA, lived there AND his daughters went to school in PMB, he had been to Durban often and also Johannesburg where friends of theirs they met lived. Funny thing was, that the family they knew in JHB, their son was engaged to one of the ex Miss Michigans while they were there!! LOLIt's just all so shocking to me still, two South African connections in two days and at the same College that I'm going too. Pretty strange but AWESOME at the same time!! :)On Wednesday I had English, well what can I say about English? It's my first language, but I hate "learning" English, it must be the most boring subject ever, however, I will not complain TOO much about it, as I have to do it and I am enjoying College so far. I will be honest and say I will probably battle a bit with that class, not because I don't know the work and language, but for other reasons, I won't go into detail online for the world to see, and me get into trouble, LOL... One good thing about the class already, is that we all voted to not take a 25 min break in the middle, but to take off 25 min at the end and leave early!! So instead of 9pm ending, it is now 8.30pm :DThursdays are a repeat of Tuesday evenings :)What I like so far is that all of my classes are all in the same building this semester. Which is nice because I can get use to this block and later on know exactly where to go if I have more classes next semester in the same building.

Student Center Building, I love this pic for some reason (I think it's the colour of the trees :) )

This is to the left of the building I have my classes in. I couldn't find a day picture of the side I go into...

This is the side of the building I go into every time. I took this pic on Thursday eve to send to my Mom :)

I am aiming for at LEAST a 2.0 GPA which is a C, I would LOVE to get a 3.0 which is a B, but we will see. This is my first Semester here, first time back at school after a very long time and so I don't want to PUSH my expectations too tooooo hard :) But I will have an update of my end of Semester Grade at the end for sure!!HERE'S TO A GREAT FIRST WEEK OF THE REST OF MY LIFE AND A DREAM OF MINE!! ELEMENTARY TEACHING DEGREE HERE I COME!!